Federal and several state laws attempt to control the influx of new potentially dangerous non-scheduled synthetic drugs that are in part, allegedly �substantially similar� in molecular structure to reference Schedule I and II controlled substances.  The qualifying phrase �substantially similar in structure� used by several laws is neither defined nor is it quantifiable by any current scientific methods.  This study attempts to develop objective scientific methods to quantify and define the important �substantially similar� structural parameter used in several laws.  The Tanimoto coefficient is proposed as a potentially objective similarity measurement to combine with existing non-standard scientific opinions to assist in the determination of what may constitute substantially similar structural comparisons between test and reference molecules.

Measurement of molecular structural similarity

247th National Meeting (2014)

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